His and Hers
by kunoichi goddess
Summary: It's thanksgiving and yet some people aren't very happy. Nejiten.


Hellooo! I'm so sorry I haven't gotten anything up for a while. But I was just so busy, especially with finals (although I don't think I studied _that_ much XD). But now school is over and it's summer!

Neji and Tenten might be kind of out of character. Gai and Lee might be too. I tried to make them energetic but I don't know if they're energetic _enough_.

His and Hers

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(A/N: normal writing is just from the writer's point of view(me) and italics is one of the characters thoughts. in flashbacks it's the exact opposite)

_Thunk thunk._ Tenten threw her weapons at the training dummy twenty meters in front of her. All her kunais and shurikan were imbedded perfectly in the dummy's vital organs. Or at least they would have been if the dummy were real. Tenten had been training for a good hour and a half now. The dummy was littered with various weapons that she had thrown at it. She decided that now would be a good time for a break. Tenten cleaned up her weapons and observed her teammates.

A few feet away, Rock Lee was on his 99th push-up, training after he had just lost to Neji in a spar, minutes before. Tenten respected him for his determination, but sometimes she thought he was too over confident. There was no way Lee would be able to beat Neji, at least definitely not overnight. But still, Lee insisted on challenging Neji every day, losing every time.

She looked past Lee. Neji was sitting under the shade of a tree, meditating, something he liked to do every once in a while to calm himself down. Tenten observed Neji for a while, remembering what had happened just the day before.

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Flashback begins 

_Tenten picked up a frozen turkey and look at its weight_. Hmm, this one's a little too big for just Mom and me._ Bitterly, she thought_, perhaps if Dad hadn't gone away on his business trip, this one would be okay. _She looked around for a smaller one but couldn't find any. She sighed. _This one will just have to do.

_Just then, she saw Neji walking in the frozen food isle and waved to him. He responded by walking over to her. _

"_Hey Neji."_

"_Hi." He seemed a little distracted._

"_Are you shopping for Thanksgiving, too?"_

"_No." _

"_Why not?"_

"_There's no one to celebrate it with." His face, usually wearing an emotionless mask, flickered to one of pain, disappearing as fast as it had come. _

"_Oh." Tenten then vaguely remembered how Neji had told her that his mother had died when he was still just a baby, and his father when he was four. Tenten whispered a soft, "I'm sorry."_

"_You don't have to apologize. You couldn't have prevented it, any more than I could. I should get going."_

_Tenten nodded. "Bye Neji."_

"_Bye."_

_Flashback ends_

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Tenten was interrupted from her thoughts when Gai started saying (or more like shouting) that they were to go home early today.

Neji's opened his eyes and stared at Gai. Lee simply stopped his 187th push-up to ask Gai, "Why!" And Tenten merely frowned. _Gai almost never lets us off early. It must be for Thanksgiving. _

"My youthful students," replied Gai to Lee's question, "have you forgotten? Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm letting you off early so you can spend some quality time with your family and loved ones."

Tenten looked over at Neji to see how he was taking the news.

His head was facing towards the ground so that Tenten couldn't see his facial expression. Even so, she knew that what Gai-sensei was saying had to be hard for Neji to take.

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_Flashback begins_

_Tenten had gone home that night after bumping into Neji at the grocery store. She remembered the look that had marred Neji's usually emotionless face. The one that, for some reason, even though it had appeared for just a second, wouldn't leave her head. The one that was full of pain, sadness, and anger, all mixed into one emotion._

_Tenten wasn't weak, not like some other girls. She had never allowed herself to cry for every little thing. The last time she had cried was when her grandfather had died, and that was back when she was five. That's not to say she never felt like crying, but in those rare moments of weakness when she did, when she had wanted nothing but to lie down on her bed, when she had wanted to cry her eyes out, she had always forced herself to get up and train. _

_Tenten felt something wet on her cheeks. She reached up and felt a tear, only one single tear. _How ironic. I haven't cried since I was five, and all the sudden I'm crying over something that has almost nothing to do with me. _Neji_ probably hasn't even cried over it since _he_ was five. _She tried to stop them but she couldn't. After all the years of holding them in, she couldn't any longer. _

Tenten had always thought that crying was a sign of weakness. But…perhaps she was wrong. Maybe crying isn't really a sign of weakness. Maybe it's just a way to show your emotions, to let out the pain. Maybe, crying somehow helps heal a person, even if all it does is let out their sorrow and their pain, it helps.

Yes, that's probably it. _She knew that Neji had probably never allowed himself to cry over his parent's death. So somehow, these tears were his too. If Neji couldn't cry for himself, Tenten would for him. She would cry for all the heartache, pain, and anger Neji had felt in the past. But she knew, that these tears were also hers._

_These tears were his and hers._

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Once again, Tenten was interrupted from her thoughts. This time it was Lee.

"Gai-sensei! You're so thoughtful! You're giving us a day off tomorrow and letting us off early today!"

"Well, thank you Lee!" Turning to Neji and Tenten, he said a quick bye and left with Lee.

Tenten looked at Neji who had resumed his meditation. _I guess Neji's not going to go home early today._ She felt a wave of emotion come over her, and on impulse, she addressed Neji. "Neji?"

"What?" He didn't even open an eye.

"Um…I was wondering, since you have no one to celebrate Thanksgiving with…"

Neji's eye twitched.

"…I was wondering if you'd like to come over to my house and have Thanksgiving there?" Tenten asked in a rush.

Neji opened his eyes and looked at Tenten without saying anything.

"Well, I mean," she was starting to get uncomfortable under Neji's gaze, "I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind having you over, and…um… the turkey's kind of big for jus—"

"I'll come."

Tenten was surprised. She hadn't actually expected Neji to say yes. "Um, okay."

Neji nodded and asked, "Aren't you going to go home to spend some time with your family?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess I should go. Bye."

"Bye."

Tenten turned to go, but looked back at Neji, only to see that he had gone back to meditating.

"Um, Neji…"

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

He opened his eyes. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just, you normally only meditate when something's bothering you."

"Tenten, don't worry too much." Neji looked straight at her. "Truth is I'm feeling a lot better than I have in a long time."

Tenten could clearly see Neji's eyes now. She could see that he had just cried. Tenten smiled.

"Tenten, weren't you going home just now?"

"Yeah, bye Neji," she said cheerfully.

"Bye. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay." _I guess the turkey won't be too big after all._

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I know it was a lot more serious than my other fics. I'm sorry if it bummed anyone out. I don't think it will, but if it did, I'm sorry. This story took me a quite a while to write.

I have another fic pretty much almost done. but I have a question. Does a mission requested by a kage, that's very dangerous, perhaps up against sannin level ninjas, seem like it should be A-ranked, or S-ranked?


End file.
